The present invention relates to apparatus for converting a running web of paper, metallic foil, plastic foil or the like into a series of sheet-like sections, e.g., into blanks which are to be converted into the wrappers of block-shaped or otherwise configurated commodities. More particularly, the invention relates to improvements in apparatus for repeatedly severing the leader of a running web at right angles or substantially at right angles to the longitudinal direction of the web, e.g., by means of one or more orbiting knives or other suitable cutting implements.
Accurate guidance of sections from a severing station to the next processing station presents serious problems in modern cross cutters which are designed to sever the running web at a high frequency. If the sections are advanced in haphazard fashion, each section which arrives at the next processing station must be accurately oriented prior to contacting the commodity which is to be draped into the section; otherwise, the appearance of the wrapper will be unacceptable to the purchaser. Even minor deviations from an optimum orientation of sheet-like sections are readily detectable when such sections are converted into parallelepiped wrappers or the like, especially if the sections carry printed matter. The situation is aggravated if the cross cutter is designed to sever readily flexible webs, e.g., webs or strips which consist of thin plastic foil and which can be flexed by slight currents of air.
Attempts to guide readily flexible sheet-like sections from the station where a running web is severed by the knife or knives of a cross cutter include the utilization of a pair of endless belt conveyors with neighboring reaches which confine the freshly severed sections and advance them to the next processing station. Such proposal is not entirely satisfactory because a highly flexible section cannot be readily separated from the reaches of the belts on arrival at the next processing station. It has been found that predictable separation of sections from the belt conveyors involves extremely high expenditures in equipment without guaranteeing predictable separation when the sections are to be transported at a high frequency.